June 9, 2010

Re: Bill C-391 which aims to repeal the registration of rifles and shotguns

As chair of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security, Conservative MP Garry Breitkreuz’s priorities to push through Bill C-391 are woefully misplaced and poorly thought out. Indeed, the Conservative Government’s determination to repeal the registration of rifles and shotguns, regardless of the facts, is nothing short of tragic. The notion, for example, that this is somehow, an urban vers rural concern completely ignores support for the registry from rural women’s groups across the country who recognize that rifles and shotguns are the guns most often used in violence against women because those are the firearms most readily available. A new Leger and Leger poll just released indicates that twice as many Canadians (59 percent) say the registration of rifles and shotguns should be maintained compared to those who say it should be scrapped (27 percent). 66 percent of women polled support the registry as it now stands. Parents also support the registration of firearms with 61 percent for and 26 percent against registration.

We have been told on countless occasions that all gun registration has worked in bringing down crime rates across the country by law enforcement officers such as the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, among others, who have consistently spoken in support of the registry. On the 28th of April, twenty-eight medical, nursing, allied health and suicide prevention organization and thirty-three professionals in the same fields, released an open letter to members of Parliament in order to underscore the importance of the gun registry in helping to prevent domestic murders, accidents and suicides.

These national groups include the Canadian Public Health Association, the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians, the Canadian Paediatric Society, the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions and the Canadian Association of Adolescent Health as well as provincial groups such as the Ontario Public Health Association and the Quebec Public Health Association. Together they signed a joint letter underscoring the risks firearms present to the health and safety of Canadians and the need for rigorous controls.

The letter stresses the following:

- most firearm deaths in Canada are suicides and the guns most often used are rifles and shotguns.
-when firearms are available, domestic homicides are more likely to involve multiple victims and end in suicide.
- gun related deaths in Canada have been reduced since the latest waves of legislative reforms were introduced.
-the greatest progress is in the deaths associated with rifles and shotguns - weapons that have been subject to most of the new measures.
-licencing works hand in hand with firearm registration to keep legal guns in the hands of legal gun owners.
-because it allows guns to be traced back to their last legal owner, registration helps prevent illegal sales or straw purchases to unlicensed (and potentially dangerous) individuals.
-registration also helps police with the temporary removal of firearms in households where there may be a risk of suicide or violence.
- this is why the Supreme Court maintained that the registration component is critical to enforcing licensing provisions and cannot be severed from the system of law enforcement.

The letter concludes with the following statement: “As health professionals, we know the importance of investing in prevention, whether in road safety or prevention of infectious diseases. We cannot easily measure prevention, but we can certainly measure the effects of ignoring it. Six different coroner’s inquests recommended the licensing of gun owners and registration of all firearms. Indeed, our daily practice informs us of the very real risks associated with firearms and of the value of a strong gun control law. That is why we must speak out against Bill C-391, the private member’s bill currently before the House of Commons which aims to abolish the long gun registry”.

The Coalition for Gun Control has repeatedly pointed out that where there are more guns, there are also higher rates of gun death and injury. Most police officers killed with guns are murdered with rifles and shotguns but suicides with firearms and domestic violence in rural communities seldom make the front page of national news outlets (www.guncontrol.ca). The sad irony, of course, is that while there are more guns in rural areas and western Canada, as well as more opposition to gun control, there are also higher rates of firearm death and injury in this part of the country, often involving rifles and shotguns.

Building Canada’s licensing and registration system was more expensive than expected but the RCMP have clearly stated that dismantling the long-gun registry will at most save $3 million a year, less than the cost of a complex murder investigation. As the federally elected MP for Yorkton-Melville, Saskatchewan, and the chair of Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security, Gary Breitkreuz and his fellow members along with all members of the House of Commons, have a moral obligation to weigh the evidence on behalf of all Canadians and to stop pandering to the well financed gun lobby. To view the statement from the Canadian Health Organizations about Firearms Control and Injury Prevention, visit: (http://www.aspq.org/DL/Declarationang.pdf).